Country Report of Mission Innovation Smart Grids in Australia
2017

In joining Mission Innovation, Australia pledged to double government clean energy research and development expenditure to approximately $216 million by 2020 to accelerate clean energy technological breakthroughs and reduce emissions. At the same time, Australia is working to encouraging greater levels of private sector investment in transformative clean energy technologies. This is being delivered through a number of agencies, such as the Australian Renewable Energy Agency (ARENA), the Australian Research Council, and Australia’s national science and research agency, the CSIRO.
To date, over AUD $120 million has been invested to fund multiple residential and commercial battery storage projects and solar thermal energy storage projects in Australia, which will help to smooth out energy supply on grids, reduce peak loads, allow utilities to better manage power supply and demand and potentially mitigate the need for network upgrades.
Three key national consultation exercises have recently been completed that serve to inform Australia’s transitional pathways in the electricity sector, including future clean energy research and development priorities. These are:
• the Low Emissions Technology Roadmap ;
• the Electricity Network Transformation Roadmap ; and
• the Independent Review into the Future Security of the National Electricity Market - Blueprint for the Future (Finkel Review).